Saturday, 30 October 2010

...The End, Thank you for being you....

End Of an Era: Panasonic Kills Off Technics Turntables

If you've ever been a DJ, known a DJ, or listened to a DJ, there's a good chance you're familiar with Technics. Panasonic'sanalog turntables are legend among scratchers and spinners. And now they're gone.

Panny made the announcement that they'd cease Technic sproduction because of "a decline in demand for these analog products and also the growing difficulty of procuring key analog components necessary to sustain production." In a word: obsolescence.

3.5 million SL-1200 turntables sold since 1972. Countless audio mixers and stereo headphones that also bear the Technics name. But with sales of analog decks being just 5% of what they were 10 years ago, Panasonic's finally pulled the plug on a classic.

What made Technics so good? A reliable Direct Drive turning mechanism. A heavy, rock-solid 27 pound base. And three decades of tradition.

It's not that Technics are the only analog turntables in the world. It that they werethe analog turntables. And now, like any other technology that gets eclipsed, they're antiques, collectibles, curios for fanatics. Lets hope anyone who's got one keeps it well preserved.